Matsi Modise
Managing Director of SiMODiSA

Ms. Matsi Modise is the Managing Director of SiMODiSA, an industry association whose mission is to accelerate entrepreneurship by collaborating with policy makers to enhance the success rate of high impact, high growth entrepreneurs in South Africa. She is the former National Executive Director of the South African Black Entrepreneurs Forum (SABEF) and is an avid entrepreneurship activist. She is the founder of Furaha Afrika Holding (Pty) Ltd, a Pan-African advisory company that focuses on enterprise and business development solutions on the African continent.
Her experience ranges from Investment Banking at Investec Bank Ltd, and Enterprise Development advisory with South African banks, institutions of higher learning and corporate entities. She has coached numerous small business owners in remote areas of South Africa to increase skills and capacity in small businesses.
She currently sits on the advisory board of the Agri-Vie Private Equity Fund; of the Free State Land Use Advisory Board; The Innovation Hub as a Non-Executive Director and Orange Corners, an incubation initiative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. She sits on the Barclays Africa Shared Growth Advisory Board, with luminaries such as Graça Machel, Maria Ramos, Wend Lucas Bull, Prof Jonathan Jansen and Prof. Adam Habib. She is a member of the Institute of Directors SA (IoDSA) and is a subcommittee member of the South African Venture Capital/ Private Equity Association (SAVCA) and the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) Innovation Management committee.
She is a World Economic Forum (WEF) founding curator of the Soweto Global Shapers Hub in Gauteng, South Africa, and in September 2014, she was acknowledged at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of New Champions, in Tianjin China by Professor Klaus Schwab (founder of the WEF) for her contribution to entrepreneurship development in South Africa’s underserved communities. In January 2016, she was selected by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as one of the Top 50 Global Shapers to attend the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Matsi is the South African Chapter Head of the Pan-African foundation, Africa 2.0 and a mentor for numerous entrepreneurs and business owners in South Africa. She is a thought leader on entrepreneurial ecosystems and is a regular contributor on CNBC Africa, Forbes Woman Africa and numerous online, print and broadcast media platforms. Matsi is a resident business mentor on two South African national radio stations SAfm and Radio 2000.
She is an international speaker, having represented South Africa and her various organisations, on numerous global platforms and in 2016, Matsi was named one of the Top 30 African leaders in technology, business, art, science, politics, design and media by Quartz Africa. She was named one of the Top 100 Young Independent Disruptors by Independent Day Media. She was awarded the Coca –Cola Young Achiever of the year award at the Women In Leadership – Africa Summit 2013. She has represented South African on numerous occasions including at the African Union 50th Jubilee celebration in Ethiopia and was part of a Youth Forum that engaged with various African leaders such as Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta, Zambian past President Kenneth Kaunda, Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She also recently represented South Africa at the Pan African Youth Summit in Kigali, Rwanda.